Coach Amre worried about Mumbai's wicket ways

Preveen Amre Interview

Mumbai's coach is worried; he feels the defending Ranji Trophy champions have a tough task ahead in the current season.

And it is not pertaining to the players. It is the home turf that makes him a worried man.

With the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai's original home ground for Ranji Trophy matches being the upgraded for the upcoming World Cup and the alternative vene at the CCI (Brabourne Stadium) being overlooked owing to administrative differences between the parties concerned, the defending champions have no option but to play their home games at the MCA facility at the Bandra-Kurla Complex.

To make matters worse, the wicket at the said facility is a flat one, rendering ineffective Mumbai's advantage as hosts.

"We don't get the home advantage so to speak," laments Amre, tongue-in-cheek. "You cannot compare this wicket to the ones at the Wankhede Stadium or even the CCI.

"It is tough to get an outright win inside four days on a surface like this," he adds.

'Last year we struggled in our home games'

Mumbai struggled throughout their league campaign last season as well with just one outright win (over Himachal Pradesh) in seven matches before stepping up the momentum in the knock-out phase, something that helped them defend their title, and take their total wins in the National championship to 39.

'I don't want to give a negative impression to my camp'

With little help from the home turf as such, the coach has lined up alternative strategies to rake up maximum points from his three home fixtures in the group phase this season.

"It is too late to blame the wicket," says Amre, adding, "Whatever be the case, this (the MCA facility at the BKC) is our home venue for this season.

"I don't want to give a negative impression to my camp."

Instead, Amre lists a few observations.

"We know if we are batting first on this track, to score at least 500 is imperative," he says. "And that this ground demands quality bowlers, not the makeshift types," he adds, before elaborating on his strategy of playing a batsman short (in the opening game against Saurashtra).

"Ajit (Agarkar), Iqbal (Abdulla), and Ramesh (Powar) know they have an additional role to perform with the bat," explains Amre, adding, "We are going into the match one batsman short because of them.